Our Rating: 80.4%

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Company Information and Credibility

Company Size:

CurrencyFair, not be confused with travel money giant FairX, went live in Dublin in 2010. Since then, it has brokered roughly €5 billion, saving its customers some €170 million. CurrencyFair has expanded into the UK, Poland, and Australia, and it able to transfer funds to most nations around the world. The firm doesn’t hold an U.S license to operate as a money transfer business, and thus is unable to on-board Americans.

The Currencyfair model has found its way around investors minds, managing to raise in excess of $20m in several different rounds (as listed here, here, here and here). The company is often mentioned next to betting exchange giant Betfair in media, and we speculate there might be a connection between the two companies, with shared investors and employees (like this consultant).

Side Note: There’s also a strong connection between Betfair and Transferwise, as David Yu is an early investor in Transferwise.

CurrencyFair is bringing real innovation to the money transfer business, and its popularity is increasing by the day.

With that being said, its level of reputation and credibility can’t be matched wtih Moneycorp (operating since the 70’s and exchanging billions annually). It simply doesn’t have enough track record to prove its financial stability over the course of decades.

Also in comparison to its direct competitor, Transferwise, it’s lagging behind. Its level of expansion and growth is nowhere near Transferwise which has. Currencyfair has only moved £5bn in total since its inception, and Transferwise has already reported to move 1bn each month. Although we can find high similarities between the two companies (view our Transferwise VS Currencyfair comparison here), we deem Transferwise as being safer due to sheer size.

With the above being said, we would say Currencyfair’s credibility is above average.

Credibility Rating

Client Feedback

Research:

There are 2,250+ client reviews available on TrustPilot , netting the company a 9.2 / 10 rating.

This represents a large improvement from a shaky start Currencyfair had on the platform (in early 2014 it had an average rating of 6.2). It means that reviews added between March 2016 and March 2017 have been almost unanimously positive.

As a recent update we can say Currencyfair’s average rating dropped slightly from 9.4 to 9.2. This means that the last ~1,500 reviews which were added had an average rating of 9.1, which is still excellent.

On the negative side there are some fairly justified complaints, but these are small things to consider inside a 85+% positive overall feedback. The fact services were discontinued is indeed true, but doesn’t happen very often. The platform is a tad more complicated than other FX firms’ platform, but on the other hand it serves a different functionality, so it is expected. And yes, there are withdrawal fees but pretty negligible when it comes to high volume trading.

Exchange Rate & Fees

Fees: There’s a min. €3 fixed fee per transaction (which grows to €8 for priority /same-day transfers). That is if you send money from the UK. You can pay as much as 40 ILS ($10 or so) if you’re transferring Israeli Shekels, which is comparable to a normal bank fee.

Exchange Rates: The currency rates offered by Currencyfair are dynamic.

In fact, Currencyfair is a marketplace where buyers and seller meet to exchange currencies. Each person can set his preferred rate, or engage into trading with an existing offer.

There are two ways to go along:

1. If you need to exchange the currency quickly, you can use the Quicktrade option. This will automatically search for the best rates currently available on the marketplace and match your transfer. We don’t have particular data on the average margin achieved through this function but we can tell Currencyfair claims to step in and offer a 0.4%-0.5% margin if no marketplace match is made (and we assume margins will hover around these prices).

2. If you want to let the money sit for a while, and willing to wait for the best deals, then you can potentially even beat the mid-market rate. On the other hand, in terms of currency fluctuations, you could end up losing much more than the fees you saved.

The average spread that Currencyfair reports is 0.4% which is a great margin even for large transfers, but it’s difficult to know if it can be ever achieved through the more recommended Quicktrade option.

Limits: €8 is the minimum amount that can be transferred, one of the lowest seen anywhere. There is no upper limit.

Conclusion:

The fees could be excessive with some currencies, or if you want a priority trade. If you are transferring small volumes in exotic currencies, or need a priority transfer, you better off not use them.

In terms of exchange rates, we think they are quite comparable to Transferwise, all in all, at around the 0.5% from mid-market rate (if you factor in the fees, and the fact many get great rates on the marketplace). That’s a pretty good average, but can be easily beaten by traditional companies when the amount transferred is significant, and could be slightly higher using the Exchange Now functionality.

Exchange Rates & Fees Rating

Global Reach & Service

Research:

Dedicated Dealer: No.

Offices: UK, Australia, Ireland.

Ways to approach: Email, Telephone, Face to Face.

Translations: Polish, French.

Accepts clients: All non-U.S clients.

Currencies Handled: 18.

Client reviews: 9.2 / 10, complimenting the company for saving and service.

Conclusion:

Currencyfair is not the most global company there is. Not only it accepts clients from very specific locations, it also handles the least amount of currency pairs of all companies, especially in comparison to companies like FC Exchange.

On the service side, there’s no doubt the company stands to the highest standards of client satisfaction, but there are no expert dealers to assist you with market guidance (or offer hedging instruments such as forward contracts). That leaves the majority of customers at a disadvantage, having to make their own estimations on market movements if they decide to focus on the marketplace option.

Currencyfair has a great money transfer app, rated 4.2 / 5 on Google Play store. It is available to both Android and iPhone users, but seems much more popular on Android than it is on iPhone.

The app allows clients to log into their accounts, and basically perform all the necessary actions, such as opening a position, exchange money and transferring it from the account.

Additional Features:

We cannot ignore the revolutionary P2P marketplace set up by Currencyfair, which represents a truly unique option of finding a mid-market rate (and then paying only 0.15% in spreads to Currencyfair itself).

Conclusion:

Currencyfair has good features when it comes to two types of clients:

1. Experts who want to bet on currency movements without advisory on the subject. These individuals or businesses can fully utilize the marketplace and achieve tremendous rates, but they must know which way the market is moving.

2. Individuals or small businesses from UK or Europe who need to move money through popular corridors, and want to use the Quicktrade option to get pretty good rates. If they’re transferring massive amounts then they’re not likely to use an app for it, or let the money wait in the marketplace until a match is made (and could potentially get better rates with traditional FX firms).

Still, the whole concept is ground-breaking and the execution of features is good.

Special Features Score

Review Summary

Credibility Score - 82%

82%

Client Feedback - 90%

90%

Fees, Exchange Rates - 85%

85%

Global Reach, Availability, Service - 75%

75%

Added Values - 70%

70%

Bottom Line

Currencyfair is an innovative company in a very non-innovative space. What keeps it apart from its competitors is its Marketplace functionality that allows prospective clients to search for a peer to peer match for their transfer, resulting in very low fees and great rates. It is generally praised by its clients who appear to be happy with the service they have been provided with.

On the flip-side, you could be ending up with worse than Transferwise margins if you do not find a match, and you could be paying significant fees on exotic currency trades. In addition to that, the online platform seems to be a tad less friendly than some of its competitors, and the fact the company is modest in size and only been operating for 7 years now making Currencyfair a decent choice but not our first pick on international money transfers.

20 comments

Nick Sellens

I use CurrencyFair and the experience has been very good. I did a lot of research on them on forums etc before taking the plunge and the comments were almost universally positive. You should always take what you see on Trustpilot with a big pinch of salt. You only have to look at the Trustpilot rating of Trustpilot to see that.

Thank you for your Feedback! We have not seen many negative comments about their level of service and response time, quite the contrary. Could you supply us with more data as for what made you think that?

Today, 10/10/2015 I am desperately trying to log into my Currency Fair (CF) A/c without success as am being told a Verication Code (VC) is being sent to my mobile which must be quotes for successful login.

I have been waiting for this code for over an hour but NOTHING.

I have also emailed a request to the Support Team asking for verification of their Bank Details to which I wish to deposit funds for exchange…..NOTHING!!

I have been a customer of FC for over 3 years and am disappointed with such poor service.

I just need access to my CF A/c so that I could use up all the funds in the account then no longer use this organisation. They are USELESS and incompetent.

Currency fair’s front page calculator suggested 1.0923 on EUR/USD but at the same time when getting a live quote to compare to my bank, offered 1.08464 On a €230k exchange that amounted to nearly €2k difference. My bank (large global player) was at 1.093346. Spot at 1.1002 or close. Would not trust the calculator on the homepage.

Hi Seth. Thank you for your input. A bit confusing though. Currencyfair’s comparison tool on the homepage was inaccurate, claimed to save you 2,000 Pounds in costs but the rate you got from your bank was actually better? If I got this correctly it is just very probable that the EURUSD was fluctuating at the time…. and data not refreshed on Currencyfair’s side yet. Very unlikely that a bank would beat Currencyfair’s margins. The rate you are describing is at around 1% which is fairly good for a bank, but any foreign exchange firm like World First, Transferwise or Currencyfair would beat. With that amount of money you should pay less than half of what the bank quoted you for.

Here the a response I received from currency fair in response to my funds not being transferred- Currency fair provided all the required information and yet where unable complete the transaction or know where the funds went! This doesn’t bode well where you are taking a risk on whether this is a legit company or not.

“Thanks for your email, and apologies for not being able to respond to you sooner.

It would appear from your receipt that you accidentally sent these funds to our CAD (Canadian Dollar) bank account. We’ve sent a query to our banking partner to determine the whereabouts of your funds. Thus, we hope to be in a position within the next business day or two to confirm to you where these funds are. In the interim, please kindly check the account from which you sent them to see if they’ve already been returned.”

Hi Ciaran, definitely not what we would expect from a company like Currency Fair. It is not clear whether you made a mistake and sent it to the wrong bank account, or they provided you with the wrong details, but either way they should be more confident about the whereabouts of your funds. Please update us on this.

In an at attempt to get a better rate I sat and watched the market move but every time I went to try and take advantage of the market movement their system would be taken off line, which got so frustrating I ended up having to take the best offer the following day which was higher and lost me £5000.00 on the exchange rate Three days later following the trade, it took me ages to get the phone answered only to be hung up on. I called back, which again took ages to get through and they had no idea where my money was. I was promised an email straight back once they had spoken to their bank. Three hours later, nothing. I called back and was told they are unable to call their own bank only email, unbelievable for a money exchange company, so I had to wait for their bank to email them back, crazy! Another hour went by, still nothing! Finally I got hold of a so called manager (Owen) after another long wait for the phone to be answered and was told my money had been held back despite me giving them all the information they needed on day of the deal and he would email me as soon as it has been released also supplying me with the directors names in the email. No surprise that I am still awaiting that email but luckily I finally got my money. This company are useless, they not only lost me £5000.00, they take forever to answer the phone, they lie to their customers and clearly can not trade in the currency market if it is moving to fast for them. If you send them an email as a customer, you are lucky to get a reply within 3 days. Go to MONEYCORP you can trade over the phone without having to move your money first and you can trust that you will get a good service and a good rate plus you will feel safe about your money unlike currency fair who I will be reporting to the Central Bank of Ireland for their miscoduct

Lee thank you for your honest and helpful review! We definitely agree that watching the market and trading by yourself, in a online-only platform is ill-recommended if you are planning to send large amounts of money. So we agree with the bottom line when it comes to large transfers.

Regarding everything else – pretty shocking to hear that. You must have made your trade in the last few days when the market was crazy and banks were unreachable. In fact their biggest competitor Transferwise just shut down for a day so they won’t have to deal with that (smart choice in retrospect). Still, it’s not any sort of excuse by any mean to hanging up the phone on you, or the unexpected delay. If you give your consent, I will send your feedback through to the CurrencyFair representative we are in contact with so he can respond on this thread.

We are thinking of joining you to transfer funds from the UK to Cyprus on a regular basis. However I need clarification regarding your withdrawal charges. Is it undertaken as a fixed fee or a percentage of the amount transferred?

Its been a week and i have no news about the money i SENT to them. The customer service is rude and its not helping at all. So far I sent to them 500 euros (to pound) and they have just disappeared. I’m shocked by the customer service and quite worried about my money. For sure this will be the first and last time with this company.

Currencyfair is not trustworthy. This is the first time I use their service. I was very patient with them. they told me that my transfer would reach the beneficiary the latest on Tuesday January 9, 2018. When the money has not arrived, I emailed them and they told me the money will reach the beneficiary on Wednesday, January 10, 2018. When the money has not arrived on Thursday January 11, 2018, I received on Friday a message from them stating that the account of the beneficiary is closed. I gave them the proof showing that they are wrong. The account of the beneficiary is active and the bank manager can prove it. Since then, you do not answer my emails anymore. I have the feeling they something is wrong with this company.

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